There I sat at almost 2am, still very drunk, cold and shivering, and trying to mean-mug the other homeless guys to let them know that, at least for the time being, this was my bench. Except it wasn’t my permanent residence, I wasn’t homeless. In fact, I just had quite a night! It was New Year’s Eve circa 1994ish, and I just spent all night partying in San Francisco.
My friends and I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Train over from where we were staying at a friend’s house in Walnut Creek to the city. Once we got there it was near impossible to not have a good time! There was loud music, festive crowds, drinking, dancing, and new acquaintances that would be soon forgot, but hopefully not before you got to kiss them at midnight. In all the revelry, my friends and I got split up. That was okay, because I remembered the very important instructions that I was given that night: the trains stopped running at 1am. I just had to wrap up my fun by 12:15 or so and head over to the train station and I would be fine.
I did just that. By 12:20 I was on a train and by about 12:21, I had already passed out. At about 1am, I was shook awake, “hey buddy, get up it’s the last stop, you’ve got to get off this train!” I was very groggy, but managed to ask, “are we in Walnut Creek?” Once the guy stopped laughing, he hollered, “Walnut Creek?!? Your in Daly City!” Yep, I got on a train all right, but it took me to the exact opposite place of where I wanted to go. To make matters worse, I didn’t allow enough time to correct my mistake, and was stuck at the end of the road.
That drunken train ride is our life. We are on it, we’re heading somewhere, and eventually this ride is going to come to a stop. When the train stops, we’re stuck at whatever location our actions take us to.
I’m not going to lie, when I was agnostic, the conceit of Christians used to drive me nuts! “So you are saying out of the thousands of religions, yours is the right way?” Sure it is bubs! Even more annoying (excuse my French but it used to really piss me off) was their arrogance to tell me that me being a good person wasn’t enough to get me to Heaven if such a place even existed. I was probably a much better person than a lot of those hypocrites who told me that! Who did those jerks think they were and how did they know the way to Heaven?
Years later I realized it wasn’t them, it was Jesus who said, “I am THE way, the truth, and the life.” He didn’t say he was “A” way. He said he was THE way. All religions lead to Heaven is about as true as saying all trains lead to Walnut Creek. The scary part is most of us are putting about as much preparation into their life train as I put into my drunk train. Part of the problem is that most of us are going to wake up tomorrow… and the next day… and the day after that. We are fooled into thinking we have all the time in the world to figure it out. Maybe someday we’ll get around to researching what we believe and why we believe it. For now though, let’s just enjoy the ride because what could go wrong?
I’ve never been one to force my beliefs on anyone. In fact, having beliefs forced on me helped keep me away from God. However, I would strongly encourage you to do some research and decide on what you want to believe (even if it is just that you are going to be stuck in a box, worms will eat you, the end). I know it isn’t necessarily fun to think about, but this train ride IS coming to an end… are your heading in the right direction?
Because this blog isn’t called Sunday’s serious, I’ll end with one of my dad’s favorite jokes,:
Train conductor: Sir, I’m going to need to see your ticket.
Man shakes his head.
Train conductor (louder this time): MISTER, I’m going to need to see your ticket or I’m going to have to throw your luggage off this train.
Man shakes his head more vigorously this time
Train conductor notices they are on a bridge above water so he grabs a piece of the man’s luggage and tosses it into the river.
Man (who had a Scottish accent for some reason): Hoot man, not only are you trying to jip me out of me fare, you’re trying to kill my son!
